‘From disaster to master’: Exploring the journey beyond desistance in Ireland

Abstract

Desistance scholars maintain that innovative and sustainable mechanisms are needed to support the enhancement of human development. Failure to desist is often attributed to limited personal agency and structural disadvantages such as a lack of education attainment and meaningful employment. Therefore, it is argued that criminal justice responses should break down educational and employment barriers in the desistance process, if we are to help remove hurdles to both social cohesion and social integration. To provide additional insights into this phenomenon, this article presents an autobiographical, reflective and experiential account of these challenges in the life of a desister from multiple perspectives. The narrative reveals that the change process extends beyond the attainment of education and meaningful employment, and describes the challenges faced by both work colleagues and the desister. These accounts are accompanied by a reflective academic commentary that situates these personal work experiences within the wider desistance literature, helping to add a critical appraisal of existing knowledge as viewed through the lens of one person’s desistance process over a 10-year period through education and into employment.